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Tag: tom gauld

AI vs Death

Tom Gauld for the New Scientist.

By weird coincidence this tribute to Ingmar Bergman from the 1981 TV special “The Muppets Go to the Movies” with Beaker as Death also popped up in my timeline this week.

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‘To Be Read’ by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

My ‘to be read’ wall feels particularly bad at the moment. I did, however, read an ARC of She’s a Killer by Kirsten McDougall on vacation, which is fun if you like an unreliable narrator who is not quite a genius, but very possibly a sociopath (and has an imaginary friend).

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Corrupting Souls

Tom Gauld‘s Midsummer’s Eve cartoon for The Guardian is from last month (obviously!), but I’m borrowing it to make a bit of boring and overdue social media housekeeping more interesting!

While I haven’t yet asked Wizard Toby to deactivate the Casual Optimist account like a some kind of despairing Baphomet, I have pretty much abandoned Twitter. It’s disappointing because I’ve met some great people through the app and it has always been a tremendous resource, but I can’t support it any more.

I’ve always hated Facebook and I haven’t posted to the Casual Optimist page there in at least a couple of years. I did, however, start an Instagram account which I’m trying to update at least once a month if you want to follow along there. I think it’s pretty unlikely that I will do anything with Threads.

I’m not on Bluesky, but I am trying out Mastodon. It promises a lot, I’m just not quite convinced by it yet (and I gather from more prolific posters than me that there is something of a sea lion problem there). I’ll post a link if/when there is a proper Casual Optimist account. In the meantime, you can find me here.

There is an RSS feed that you can subscribe to if you still use a reader (I use the Old Reader FWIW; I’m not sure what the cool kids are using), or you can get it as an email (it’s not perfect but it works).

Updates are also sent automatically to Tumblr if you’re still rattling around that haunted abandoned mansion.

Anyway, sorry for being very online and tedious. I’ll try to post some more interesting stuff soon (if I don’t quietly pack it in completely and put myself out to pasture…)

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Nighthawks at the Library by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for The Guardian.

(Is this a Semisonic joke as well as an Edward Hopper one? Or am I just showing my age?)

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Søren Kierkegaard, 1843 by Tom Gauld

A very clever bit of cartooning by Mister Tom Gauld for New Scientist.

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The Perfect Book Cover by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for the Guardian.

I think pretty much every book cover designer I know shared this over the weekend. Every British one at least…

Tom’s latest collection of literary cartoons, Revenge of the Librarians, is out now.

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Our Town’s Libraries by Tom Gauld

Tom Gauld for the New York Times.

Tom’s new book, coincidentally called Revenge of the Librarians, is out now.

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The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess

Tom Gauld’s first picture book for children, The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess, is out this month! According to the publisher blurb, the book is inspired by a bedtime story he made up for his daughters:

“I was trying to make a book inspired by three different sets of books: The books that I remember enjoying as a child, the books that I watched my daughters enjoying, and the books I enjoy now as an adult. I wanted the book to have its own quirky feeling but also to function like a classic bedtime story.”

It looks wonderful.

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Your House is Overloaded With Books…

Tom Gauld celebrates Independent Bookshop Week (which was last week, but isn’t every week independent bookshop week when you think about it?)

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Bedtime Reading Routine

This is a tragically accurate portrayal of how it has been going during the pandemic.

(Tom Gauld for The Guardian of course)

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Attempts to Create a Robotic Novelist

Tom Gauld has drawn a new cartoon for the New York Times Books section.

This is probably my favourite panel…

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